Tuesday 5 May 2009 17.04 EDT
First published on Tuesday 5 May 2009 17.04 EDT

The Premier League will refuse requests from the troubled sports broadcaster Setanta for renegotiation of its £392m contract, increasing fears over its future.

The company, thrown into disarray earlier this year by the loss of 23 of its current 46 Premier League matches from 2010 after it misjudged its bid, is engaged in a race against time to safeguard its future.

Since February it has been seeking talks with its major rights holders in an attempt to renegotiate existing and upcoming contracts in order to reduce its outgoings.

But it is understood that the Premier League, with which it held talks last week amid hopes it could be persuaded to reschedule the latest of six instalments of its £392m deal, will insist on being paid in full and on time.

Some of its rights holders, including the Scottish Premier League, the US PGA Tour and Premier Rugby, have been willing to consider the idea of taking a reduction.

They have benefited to a large degree from the rights inflation that Setanta, which began life broadcasting Irish sport to ex-pats before expanding around the world and launching an ambitious attempt to take on Sky in the UK, has introduced to the market in recent years.

But any savings from those rights holders are likely to be negligible when set against the payments due to the Premier League. In addition to its current £392m contract, it has already paid a deposit on its next £159m three-year deal.

It was Setanta's attempts to cut the amount it pays by a fifth, against the advice of some of its own executives, that led to it narrowly losing out on the fifth of six packages to Sky.

The next payment on its current deal of around £35m is due at the end of the season and it is understood that, even if Setanta defaulted, the Premier League would not lose out due to the amount of money it holds in escrow on the front-loaded contract.

The Football Association, while prepared to be flexible around payment dates within a few days, is similarly determined to hold Setanta to its £159m contract. If Setanta were to default, the rights would revert to the FA, with the FA Cup games retendered and ITV obliged to pick up England's friendlies at a cut price £2m apiece.

The talks over rights are just one part of a complex web of calculations that Setanta's shareholders, including Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital, must make as they weigh up whether to invest more money. A search for new investors has already proved fruitless.

Sir Robin Miller, the former Emap chief executive, has been parachuted in as chairman to lead the attempt to rescue the company.

Executives have been working on a redrawn business plan with a lower cost base that they hope will convince their backers to pour more money into the business before the end of the month.